Draco made a campfire in the center of the goblin camp using some wood liberated from the goblin huts. He had no issues tearing apart their wooden huts with his sharp axes. We would later set whatever was left aflame before we departed.

Seralyn and Nira were scouting the nearby area for any leftover goblins while we prepared to have something to eat.

I stared at the polearm which I’d laid in front of me as Velariah handed me an apple.

“Gotta eat something, El.”

“I doubt eating apples will do much to sustain this body. We’ve been incredibly unlucky with game, haven’t we?”

“You could say that again.”

I accepted the apple and took a bite, not registering the flavor as my gaze was still fixated on my new weapon before me.

“What’s on your mind?” The elf asked as she sat down next to me.

“Nothing. It’s just…” I took a deep breath before I continued. “The ease with which I was able to kill those goblins, both physically, but also mentally, was… shocking truly. In my old life, I never would have imagined myself resorting to violence like this. How easily I’ve been able to adjust… it’s… I don’t get it.”

“I don’t know anything about your old world. It does sound like a place that’s simply too perfect. No killing on a day-to-day basis is incomprehensible for me.”

“I suppose it’s the same way, just reversed for me.”

“I don’t think there’s a reason to start doubting yourself, Miss Elania,” Draco interjected. “It’s either kill or be killed here. We don’t have the luxury of reflecting our virtues.”

“You’re right. While I don’t doubt myself with regards to this, I know it’s necessary, it’s still so weird to be so… strong, I guess you could call it. Now that I’m starting to utilize my power better, it’s shocking to see what I can do. I never would have imagined this being possible, let alone me actually doing it.”

I took another bite of the apple as Velariah rested her head against my side. I put an arm around her while I used the other arm on my right side to hold the fruit.

“So,” Velariah spoke. “What did we learn during this quest, other than the fact that Elania truly is a one-woman army.”

“That trolls and goblins are confirmed to work together, at least in some way,” I said with my mouth full.

“That would be the most important finding,” Draco added.

“Just great,” Velariah said with a sigh. “That probably means that we’ll have to rid this forest of trolls as well. Not that I have an issue with that, but still.”

“It’s going to make things take longer,” I said her unspoken words.

“Yeap.”

“You know… I’ve been thinking,” I said as I observed the fire crackling before me. “Call it a gut feeling, but I somehow have the suspicion that this supposed dungeon in the forest is going to be close to that one cave where we fought the troll warlord.”

“That’s where you woke up, right?” Velariah asked.

I nodded. “That, and all the other things that happened in its vicinity are too much of a coincidence. Unfortunately, it’s just that, a hunch, I can’t expect to change Valtheril’s plans for a proper combing of the forest, based on that.”

I sighed again as I sheathed my polearm. “I just hope things will turn out okay.”

“My father is a capable man,” Velariah spoke. “You’ve seen how hard he works. I’m sure everything will be fine in the end. What we should do right now is focus on finishing this quest properly by burning down whatever is left and relaying the things we learned to the guild. I’d like to get back to Dawnleaf as soon as possible.”

“For this festival thingy, right?” I asked.

Velariah nodded, her head still resting against my side.

“Do you know anything about this festival?” I asked the lizardman on the other side of the campfire.

I saw a smile grow on his snout. “Certainly,” He said, withholding the information I sought, seemingly on purpose.

This was just mean.

Velariah started giggling at Draco’s response. “As I said, you need to see it for yourself. Spoiling it is just no fun.”

“Fine.”

A loud gurgle came from my stomach. I was getting more hungry with each passing moment. I decided to stand up, and unsheathe my blade again. I needed something to eat or I would go crazy.

“You going out on a hunt?” Velariah asked.

“I am. I don’t want the same to happen as before. You know? Where I couldn’t control myself.”

“Fair. Mind if I come with you?”

“I don’t mind. Will you be okay, Draco?”

The lizardman nodded. “Don’t mind me. I’ll be fine. Besides, I think Nira and Seralyn are just about done.”

I fastened my helmet again and opened all four eyes. I was hoping I would have an easier time spotting prey.

“With some luck, we’ll be back soon. You guys can clean up here in the meantime, I suppose,” I said. Draco replied with a simple nod as Velariah stood up to join me in my search for food.

The elf and I left him behind as we walked off together.

“You better not scare the food away,” I said in a teasing manner once we found ourselves between trees again.

“Says the giant spider,” Velariah teased back. “Also, I doubt anything will escape you even if I scare it away.”

“Good point,” I noted.

We made sure not to wander off too far from our temporary camp. If anything happened, I’d like to be able to assist as quickly as possible. The trees in this area were fairly open, so if Nira took to the skies, we would be able to spot her from here quite easily.

After wandering about for ten minutes, it seemed my luck changed. It wouldn’t be my first choice of prey, but I wasn’t in a position to be picky. A hundred meters out from our position was a bunbear. The creature was clawing away at the bark of a tree. I was trying to figure out why it was doing it and looked at Velariah for an answer.

“I have no idea. I would guess it’s marking its territory?”

Even though Velariah’s words weren’t loud, they seemed to be loud enough for the bunbear’s sensitive hearing to pick it up as the creature turned its head to the two of us.

“And apparently we have entered its territory,” I let out as the bunbear started charging at me. I readied myself for a charge of my own, my new weapon at the ready.

“Seems so,” The white-haired elf said as she drew her own weapon.

“Guess this is my territory now,” I said as I charged at the charging animal.

I made sure to run at it head-on. Then, at the latest possible time, I stepped aside, causing the creature to charge at nothing but air. In the meantime, I felt my polearm’s blade pierce its flesh and run through its side. I had to exert more force to hold on to the weapon, but I managed. This is where strength training would certainly be beneficial for me.

I continued onward for a short while as my momentum carried me forward before turning around to see what my attack had caused.

In the distance, I could still see Velariah stand ready with her sword, but noted that it would be unnecessary for her to do anything. The bunbear was down in the dirt, its side cut open, bleeding heavily.

When I approached the animal, it was already dead. It had lost far too much blood.

“Well,” Velariah said as she approached at the same time. “That was quick. I hope your method of feeding works. Cooking this thing would take ages, and I don’t know if we have that kind of time. I’d like to be on the way back today.”

“And make camp a fair distance away from this goblin ‘village’, correct?”

“Read my thoughts, there. Sticking around here is just asking for trouble, even if we did wipe out most of the goblins,” Velariah sat down next to the bunbear. “Well, what are you waiting for?” She said with a sly smile.

“I hope this works,” I said as I raised my fangs and plunged them into the bunbear’s side.

As if on cue, as soon as I thought about wanting to eat this creature, I felt the same liquid pushed from my fangs into the bunbear. I let my lower half do whatever it wanted and apparently, that included putting my pedipalps and front two legs on top of the bear hybrid. A few seconds of pushing liquid into the creature later, it abruptly stopped.

Then, nothing happened for a few seconds until I felt my fangs suck in whatever my special venom had done to this creature’s meat.

The feeling that flooded my spider half was just as satisfying as the first time. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the liquid flowing through my fangs all the way to my stomach located somewhere in my abdomen.

“Seems someone is enjoying this way too much,” Velariah teased me.

“I have no idea why this feels so good. I just don’t,” I said in response.

“Ever wondered if your spider half has a brain of its own?” The elf suggested. “Does it enjoy doing this maybe?”

“I don’t believe I have two brains,” I replied. “But I can’t be sure. It does seem like my spider half is doing this on instinct, though.”

“Odd,” Velariah concluded.

“At least it’s a quick way to eat.”

“That’s true…” Velariah trailed off. “Hey, El, remember the times you got drunk and your lower half did shit on its own.”

“I never got drunk.”

“But your spider half did. It seemed to be keen on grabbing me with its pedipalps and stuff. Are you sure you don’t have two brains?”

“Interesting hypothesis,” I said, before shrugging. “Maybe I do, who knows? I’m not intending to cut myself open to find out.”

I relaxed as a steady flow of warm liquid continued to be sucked into my stomach. It made me chuckle as I started thinking about how this was possibly the closest I would get to the feeling of drinking coffee. By the time I was finished, the bunbear had been reduced to a sorry hollow husk. My spider abdomen was slightly bloated.

“Well, at least this seems to put you in a good mood,” Velariah commented after I let go of the bunbear’s corpse and hid my fangs under my body once more.

“Yeah, it feels nice. I just compared it to drinking coffee in my mind.”

Velariah shook her head. “You and your coffee…”

“I miss it, okay?”

Velariah stepped in front of me, forced my torso down and planted her lips on mine. I closed all my eyes and relaxed as I lost myself in the kiss. I was disappointed when she broke away…

“And I miss doing this to you.”

“That why you followed me?” I asked with a smile.

“Perhaps,” Velariah grinned in reply. “Anyway, we should head back. We still have some traveling to do before nightfall. Besides, you know I want to be back in Dawnleaf as soon as possible.”

I nodded. “All this talk about this supposed festival has made me want to get back as soon as possible as well.”

“Great. Let’s get going then.”

I followed Velariah back to our temporary camp. When we got back, I was not surprised to see that Seralyn had caught two more rabbits. I was, however, surprised to see that she wasn’t skinning them or anything.

It seemed Draco had already torched what buildings would burn, and smashed the rest to rubble. I noticed that Nira’s claws had fresh blood on them. They had killed more than just rabbits, for sure.

“Seems you guys killed some more goblins,” Velariah spoke my thoughts.

Seralyn nodded. “Yep. got five more added to the kill count.” She formed a sly smile. “Didn’t stand a chance. Got their ears packed already.”

“We’re ready to move out,” Draco added. “I would ask if you two succeeded but…”

“Your butt already shows,” Seralyn said before grinning wildly.

I covered my face with a hand while Velariah joined the other elf in laughter.

“I wouldn’t quite put it like that…” Draco said.

I tried to ignore them and change the subject. “Let’s just move out.”

Seeing as the others had already packed everything and were ready to head out as it was, I just turned around and started walking in the direction of where we came from. Soon enough, Velariah joined my side and asked if I was okay.

“I’m fine, truly,” I said softly. “It’s just… you know, that was a bit… awkward.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. It was funny, though, you have to admit.”

I nodded. “I would have probably made the same joke, so I don’t blame her.”

“Heh, good to see you still have a sense of humor.”

Through the eyes at the side of my head, I could see that Nira had trouble catching up with us as her claws were hard to navigate the forest floor with. She used her wings to leap forward, before taking a few quick steps, to then leap again.

I realized it was quite rude of me to simply leave her like that, so I halted until she’d caught up. I preemptively lowered myself so she could step on with ease.

“Thanks…” She said softly when she did.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized.

The only upside to her having to ‘walk’ a short distance was it wiped some of the blood off her claws. I still got some on my thorax, but it wasn’t anything that a good bath couldn’t get rid of.

After moving through the forest for a while, we entered the more overgrown area where it was important to keep our eyes open. Despite the potential for danger lurking behind every tree or bush, we didn’t encounter anything. Over the course of the next couple of hours, I did feel my strength being drained at a rapid rate. I was starting to have trouble keeping my eyes open.

“You okay?” Velariah asked at some point.

“I think I’m starting to hit my limit. I’m exhausted.”

“Think you’ll be able to keep it up for a little longer? It’s almost evening, and we’ll be out of this overgrown place soon enough.”

“I’ll try, but I won’t promise a thing.”

“Do you want a potion?” She continued.

I shook my head. “It’s unnecessary. We should save them for when we need them when we’re out.”

I willed myself to keep going, knowing we’d be out in a more open area soon.

“I can’t promise I’ll be able to web up a perimeter,” I said after another minute or two.

“It’ll be fine. We’ll have two of us on guard duty at a time. You should get your rest. You’ve done so much last night and today.”

“Thank you, Vel.”

“No. Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to see my sexy spider in action.”

I didn’t have to turn my head to see the huge smile she had on her face. It forced one on my face as well.

As Velariah had mentioned, we soon entered an area of the forest where vegetation was sparse. We continued for a minute more until we found a nice open place where we would be able to spot enemies from far away. As if on cue, Draco took the tent materials from one of my saddlebags while Seralyn went out and gathered firewood. Nira hopped off of my back and started helping Draco with setting up the tents.

Without words being spoken, everyone got to work. I was left standing, unsure what to do Velariah walked up to me after exchanging a few words with the lizardman.

“You can just take it easy, El. We’ll get this sorted.” She then handed me a canteen.

I nodded and spoke softly. “Thanks.”

I uncorked the container and started drinking. I quickly emptied the canteen and handed it back to the elf before I spread my legs over the dirt ground beneath me, and allowed my body to drop to it. I removed my helm and put it in the dirt before me.

Evening fell over the forest as the sky had already been its signature red for a while. It was starting to get dark as the others were working quickly to get a camp set up. Nira and Draco were still working on the tents, while Seralyn sat down next to the campfire she’d made, and started skinning the two rabbits she’d caught. Velariah was walking around, keeping an eye open for any movements in the surrounding area.

I yawned. I would love to just go to sleep, but I’d like to see everything set up before doing so. Besides, I was kind of yearning to have Velariah next to me. It would be a lot more comfortable sleeping on her shoulder.

I was happy to see her approach me when the tents were set up. “How are you still awake?” She asked as she sat down next to me.

“I was waiting for you…” I spoke softly as I rested my head on her shoulder and took in her scent. It brought peace and quiet to my mind.

“How sweet,” She replied with a whisper before turning her head to kiss my hair. “Anyway,” She continued as she brushed my hair back with her hand so it wasn’t in front of my face. “You need your sleep. We’ll handle the rest.”

“Thank you, Vel,” I whispered. I was unsure if Seralyn would be able to hear it, but I truly didn’t care at the moment. “Love you,” I said before I gave her a quick goodnight kiss and closed my eyes.

“Love you too, El. Good night.”

The exhaustion soon became too much for me, and I drifted off into peaceful sleep.